Happy Meteor Day.
Do you know the difference between an asteroid and a meteor? When does a meteoroid become a meteorite?
In honor of Meteor Day, I thought I would share some common space words (as defined by NASA) that are often used interchangeably but actually have distinct meanings. This will help the next time you see a shooting star or meteor shower with your friends and family.
- Asteroid: A relatively small, inactive, rocky body orbiting the Sun.
- Comet: A relatively small, at times active, object whose ices can vaporize in sunlight, forming an atmosphere (coma) of dust and gas and, sometimes, a tail of dust and/or gas.
- Meteoroid: A small particle from a comet or asteroid orbiting the Sun.
- Meteor: The light phenomena which results when a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere and vaporizes; a shooting star.
- Meteorite: A meteoroid that survives its passage through the Earth’s atmosphere and lands upon the Earth’s surface.